Poll: Would you buy a Hyundai i20?

Last week we asked you if you'd be interested in a Nissan Micra, which is built in Mexico and is available in Canada and dozens of other countries, but not in the U.S. A substantial majority of our readers, 77 percent, voted that they would be interested in buying the $9,100 Micra if it was sold in America, a slightly lower percentage than for most of our past foreign-vehicle polls (which were all quite different, it should be noted). The Micra essentially offers the same engine and almost the same amount of interior space as the Nissan Versa Note at 2/3 the price of a stateside Note, which is already considered to be about as spartan as it gets despite a $14,780 price tag.

McLaren Automotive First Anniversary: 1,000 McLaren MP4-12C sold and counting

McLaren Automotive is a year old and is celebrating selling over 1,000 McLaren MP4-12Cs in the first twelve months. It’s actually a bit more than  three years since Ron Dennis announced the formation of McLaren Automotive, which had a live launch on Cars UK on 18th March 2010. But McLaren don’t seem to acknowledge that date as the start of McLaren Automotive but instead prefer the date the first MP4-12C was sold – exactly one year ago today on June 21st 2011.

Stile Bertone goes independent

Stile Bertone is to forge an independent future under a new managing director by splitting with its coachbuilding arm and following a new business strategy. The changes were rubber-stamped at a meeting in Turin on Monday. The new managing director is former Aprilia CEO Teresio Gaudio, who has been a consultant to the Bertone family while the future of the business was sorted out.